As someone whose family has had the joy of welcoming shelter dogs into our home, I know firsthand the pleasures–and, yes, the challenges–of life with such creatures. We’ve brought in the good-natured one, an able sidekick to a larger, more emotionally-driven alpha (ish). We’ve brought in the anxious one, so curious, yet so in need of calm herself. And so grateful therefor.

Perhaps that is why I am so intrigued by this opportunity afforded the combat veterans of New England, here in the northeastern US.

Like the veterans who seek their companionship, the dogs have experienced life in many different ways by the time they hit those shelters. What unites both veteran and dog at the point of their meeting is a tale of the past: survival. Yet by engaging together, having survived, now connected, each gets an opportunity to re-tell a life story, with a different cast of characters.